1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to efflorescent material primarily in sporting good applications such as archery and fishing, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for quickly and effectively charges a glow-in-the-dark material for use in such sporting good activities.
2. Description of the Art
Recently, there has been developed a light emitting diode (LED) that emits visible and invisible ultra violet light. Even more recently, such LED's have been incorporated into small hand-held pen lights and other small portable flashlights. Such LED pen lights have been produced with specifications which include an output power of 1,000 uW, peak wavelengths of about 375 nm, narrow focus lenses of about 10 degrees or wider field lenses of about 100 degrees, and a spectrum half width of 12 nm. LED's typically have extensive life spans, compared to conventional fluorescent tubes or light bulbs and will often have an average life span of 2,000 hours or more. The use of 375 nm light is UVA light, or long wave UV, which is generally safer to the human eye than UVB or UVC and is just below the human eye visible light range.
Such UV pen lights have been employed for such uses as document and forgery analysis by showing alterations or changes when exposed to UV light, crowd and access control by illuminating invisible marks on a hand or card, and crime scene inspection by illuminating various bodily fluids. In addition, such UV lights have been employed in currency and bill verification since many currencies now include UV fluorescing strips. Leak detection by adding a UC powder or liquid to a system with a leak and using a UC light source to quickly detect leaks is another use for such UV lights, as well as rodent detection by illuminating urine, scientific, laboratory and educational analysis, UV curing, medical skin treatments, EPROM erasure, painting and rug repair detection, and gemstone and mineral inspection. Such LED UV light sources, however, have not been employed to charge a glow-in-the-dark material.
Various sporting good products have taken advantage of the illumination properties of various glow in the dark materials to provide illumination in low light conditions. Such efflorescent materials are now used on items from bow sights to fishing lures. When used on bow sights, Bow sights the sight pins are provided with a light-gathering fiber optic element to enable use of the sighting device in low light environments. Various configurations of sight pins using fiber optic members have been proposed.
Despite the light-gathering capabilities of fiber optic elements which render sighting devices more useful in low-light conditions (e.g., dusk), there is a point at which the ambient light is so low that the fiber optic element is no longer capable of gathering sufficient light to provide any illumination. Various direct lighting techniques have been employed in which a small light source is directly coupled to the fiber optic element in order to illuminate the sight pins. In addition, it has also been proposed to provide a self illuminating substance such various glow-in-the-dark materials to one end of a fiber optic element or along its length in order to illuminate the opposite visible end in low light conditions.
In fishing lure applications, glow-in-the-dark materials have been incorporated into the construction of the lure itself in order to illuminate the fishing lure under water. This is thought to provide better visible for fish to more quickly visually locate the lure, especially in deep water where light conditions are generally poor.
In either case, archery or fishing, there is a need to quickly charge the glow-in-the-dark material. In addition, there is a need to quickly charge the glow-in-the-dark material in a manner that will cause the illuminating properties of the material to last. Typically, such glow-in-the-dark materials are charged by exposing them to ambient light, such as sunlight, or by shining light from a light source, such as a flash light, on the material. While such techniques do cause the material to become charged, the illumination time is relatively short lived. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a means for causing a glow-in-the-dark material quickly and in a manner that produces an extending illumination time of the material.